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The incorporation of the deuterium isotopic value of ...

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The incorporation of the deuterium isotopic value of rainwater in the tissues of producers and primary consumers

Name:Personal
Jacob M. Peters Role :Text(marcrelator)
creator

Name:Personal
Dr. Carlos Martinez del Rio Role :Text(marcrelator)
creator

typeOfResource
text genre
Powerpoint/PDF
Origin Information Place
Laramie, Wyoming
University of Wyoming (keyDate="yes")
4/24/2010

Physical Description
born digital

abstract
Ecologists use a variety of extrinsic markers (such as bands and radio transmitters) to track the movements of migratory birds with limited success. One alternative technique utilizes an intrinsic marker, the hydrogen isotope composition (?D) of bird tissues. Flight feathers are molted and regrown during the summer months and are therefore assumed to incorporate the ?D value of local precipitation of the area in which they were grown. Controlled feeding experiments, however, have shown that only ~20% of the hydrogen in a feather is derived from ingested drinking water, with the remainder sourced from diet. To learn more about how hydrogen isotopes are incorporated into food webs, we grew cabbage plants using water with differing ?D values. We then subjected each plant to a primary consumer (caterpillars) to characterize how ?D values are transferred across links in food webs. Isotopic analysis of both primary producer and consumer will determine if and how much the precipitation deuterium levels differ from those of a bird's diet. This information may be used to evaluate the accuracy of this tracking method, an essential step toward understanding the ecology of migratory birds. note
From - Undergraduate Research Day 2010 - Celebration of Research - Abstracts
Subject
Undergraduate Research Day

Related Item:Host Title Information
Undergraduate Research Day 2010

accessCondition:useAndReproduction
http://digital.uwyo.edu/copyright.htm
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http://hdl.handle.net/10176/wyu:615